Unidentified Persons With Disabilities in India- A Study Based on 76th Round of NSS (2018-19) Data

Abstract Background: Identification of the disabled and providing them a disability certificate is the first step for provisioning educational, employment, and other social benefits in a welfare state. Deprivation from disability certificate deprives persons with disability (PwDs) from government policy and programme. Though studies examined the extent, variation, and pattern of disability, no attempt has been made in understanding the extent and variation of unidentified PwDs in India. The study aims to examine the variation in unidentified PwDs by type of disability, state and socio-economic correlates.Data and methods: The unit data from the 76th round (schedule 26) of Nation Sample Survey, 2018 is used in analyses. A total of 1,06,894 disabled across seven types of disabilities; any disability, locomotor, visual, hearing, speech, mental retardation, mental illness, and other disability have been analysed. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses are used.Results: 7 in 10 disabled person in India don’t have a disability certificate. The percentage share of PwDs with a disability certificate varies 12% among those with hearing disability to 47% with mental retardation. Unadjusted odds ratio shows that person with hearing disability (OR=0.30 CI 0.303-0.304) are less likely to hold a disability certificate compare to locomotor disability followed by mental illness (OR=0.52 CI 0.519 0520), and visual disability (OR= 0.74 CI 0.736 0.738). Person with mental retardation are two times more likely to hold the disability certificate (OR 2.05 CI 2.046 2.047) than the visual disabled. States variation in percent share of disability certificate is found to be large. The result depicts that there remains a high variation in the access of disability certificates across states in India. Conclusion: A nationwide drive to include the unidentified disabled is recommended with documentation and inclusion in the administrative processes.